News Story

Molyneux: Microsoft in "wasted opportunity" with lacklustre ecosystem for indies

22Cans' Peter Molyneux has criticised Microsoft for their rather poor 'ecosystem' for supporting indie and small developer projects, adding it "drives me crazy." With Windows and Xbox you'd think they'd go all out.

He remarks it's a "wasted opportunity" that Microsoft doesn't foster an ecosystem combining the two in a "truly encouraging way." He understands the need for secrecy because of leaks, but "it doesn’t seem right".

Molyneux says they've tried their hand at encouraging indie development but it doesn't seem to be in their nature, as evidenced by their latest announcements at E3.

"This drives me crazy,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “You think of Microsoft. They’ve got two amazing platforms. They’ve got Windows and Xbox, and you would think there would be an ecosystem that encompasses both of those platforms in a truly encouraging way. And I think it’s a wasted opportunity."

“That being said, I think when you’re doing something like manufacturing a console there are so many things you’ve got to be careful of in terms of security and secrecy, which is very scary coming into a conference like this. It’s all about pulling back the curtain, and if you tell indie developers there are risks of leaks."

“So I kind of understand it, but it doesn’t seem right, that they have an ecosystem that doesn’t really encourage small development. They’ve had their try at it, but it doesn’t seem like it’s part of their DNA,” continued Molyneux.

The Godus creator also believes Nintendo should abandon the hardware market and just stick to games, which is something the company is incredible at having recruited millions through their creations.

"What Miyamoto says defines things in this industry,” he stated. “What I say just upsets people. When Nintendo is making truly world-changing hardware, I totally see his point."

“But I do wonder about the Wii U – it seemed to be a kind of reaction to SmartGlass. And it’s very chunky, doesn’t really feel like it’s cutting edge. That’s when we start saying, ‘Why not spend some of your unbelievable talent on these devices?’ Because there’s a billion people out there."

“You know what Nintendo did – this is a fascinating thing – Nintendo created gamers by the software they made. They created millions of gamers with Donkey Kong and Mario – they were the birth of gamers. That exact same thing is happening on this platform today.”

Fresh waves of gamer recruits today come not from big boys like Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony, but from the indie developers. "Millions of new gamers are being created almost every month,” he said, “and they’re being created with titles not from Nintendo, not from Microsoft, not from Sony, not even necessarily from Activision or EA. They’re being created by companies like Supercell and Rovio."

“They’re the ones that are bringing and creating new gamers. And now there are millions of people interacting with franchises, which Nintendo won’t even touch, which seems a shame to me because Nintendo are brilliant about bringing people into the industry, and I think their hardware is starting to get in the way of that.”

Should Microsoft be toning down their corporate grip on Xbox and Windows? Will Nintendo leave hardware to others and just concentrate on making games? It sure helped SEGA in the long run who got out after Dreamcast.

Game Activity

Wintermist

They didn't start out with a full developer team though, nor did they start out with all that money. It snowballed.
However, not sure if you've been up to date with the news but you can actually both fly ships and run around shoot guns in a smaller universe they're using as a platform to add on to and develop technologies on. This is just part two of the game though, part one we can't even see yet because that's the single player game (Squadron 42). Squadron 42 is supposed to come out first so naturally most focus lies there.
I spent money on this game so I would say I'm probably more wary and view it more critically than you, having spent none. In my book all is still in order with this game.

As Df

The problem with some game devs is that they want to make money not the games. And sometimes they fail at both. Have you read the article how devs of Ant Simulator spent kickstarter funds on strippers?